DRUG ABUSE IN MEXICO MULTIPLIES NEAR BORDER

Tougher US Security Hinders Smuggling

TIJUANA, Mexico - With a vial of crack cocaine teetering between her
fingers, a glassy-eyed woman pauses while rummaging through a pile of
trash near the US-Mexico border, mesmerized by the morning traffic.

Nearby, a man in his 20s sits on the curb behind a parked pickup and
lights a vial with a tiny white rock inside. A police car passes as
he inhales. A forgotten hypodermic needle rests on the truck's tire.

Others shuffle by, their clothes and faces dirty as they awaken on a
recent midmorning from sidewalks, abandoned houses and cars. Several
approach an American reporter and photographer, wondering if they are
potential customers for their goods - crack cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamines.

''Looking for anything special?'' they ask in broken English.

This is the heart of Tijuana's drug district - the street called
Ninos Heroes, or Child Heroes, a noble name for a place where
Mexico's youth waste away smoking and shooting up on the curbs.

Long a transit country where drugs passed through to an insatiable US
market, Mexico has seen addictions to hard drugs skyrocket over the
past decade.

Now, officials fear tightened US border security in the aftermath of
the Sept. 11 attacks may exacerbate the problem as smugglers try to
sell their undelivered loads locally.

Mexican cities along the US border already lead the country's drug
use as traffickers pay their transporters in drugs rather than money.
Tijuana has the highest consumption of illegal drugs in the country -
three times the national average, according to the government.

''We are watching what's happening on the border very carefully,''
said Edward Jurith, who leads the White House's fight against drugs,
during his visit to Mexico last week.

Recovered heroin addict Jose Luis Avalos, who runs a drug
rehabilitation center in Tijuana, said the longer the US government
seals the border, the more dealers will be looking to the domestic
market as an alternative.

Experts say Mexican border cities can't handle the problem as it is.
Drug rehabilitation centers have grown rapidly in Tijuana over the
past five years, with more than 70 centers housing some 3,500
addicts. Another 2,500 are outpatients.

Avalos's group, the Integral Recovery Center for Alcoholic and Drug
Addicts, is considered among the best. But state human rights
prosecutor Raul Ramirez said abuses abound at some other centers.
There have been cases of addicts being beaten to death, chained to
walls and denied food in the name of discipline.

Ramirez blames the government for not doing enough for addicts.
Failing to clean up corruption has fueled the problem, he said.

''The police know where the drugs are being produced, where the
heroin, the cocaine are being distributed. They go by each week and
get paid themselves,'' Ramirez said. ''The problem is extraordinarily
complex.''

Police deny involvement, but users say they pay officers to leave them alone.

Fernando Enriquez sits on the curb, dazed and smiling. The
22-year-old lives in an abandoned house with a skinny dog.

''I learned my English selling crack to Americans,'' Enriquez said,
sitting next to a blond, blue-eyed woman from Oceanside, Calif. She
said she had been living on Tijuana's streets for five years.

Among Enriquez's customers are tourists from California who cross the
border for the lower prices on crack, heroin and methamphetamines,
which sell for less than $5 a hit.

When Enriquez has no drugs to sell, he works as a prostitute. At the
worst times, he eats trash and begs. He has been living on the
streets for six years, but said he believes he will give it all up
someday.

''Yeah, I can give this up,'' he said. ''I'd give it up if I had a
reason to, like if I had a son. Yeah, if I had a baby boy I'd leave
this. I definitely would because I would want what's best for my
son.''